The invention relates to a method and device for cleaning a component arranged within a process air circuit of a washer/dryer, or tumble dryer, particularly an evaporator of a condenser device, by means of condensation water acquired in the process air circuit from the drying of wet laundry and collected in a condensation water tank, from which it is directed to a rinsing container provided above the evaporator and is dispensed from its outlet side onto the evaporator concerned. The invention further relates to a washer/dryer or tumble dryer with a device of the above type. It should pointed out here that a washer/dryer is understood to be a combination unit which has a washing function for washing laundry and a drying function for drying wet laundry. A tumble dryer on the other hand only has a drying function for drying wet laundry.
A method and a device of the above type for removal of lint from a condensation water separator embodied as a heat exchanger are already known (DE 37 38 031 C2). In the relevant known method and with the device provided for carrying it out, a relatively small amount of around half a liter of condensation water is used for one-off rinsing of the plates of the condenser device provided. The rinsing process concerned lasts about 30 seconds in this method. To remove lint effectively from the condenser device which has remained suspended in the condenser device concerned during the drying of wet laundry, a relatively strong rinsing of the condenser device is necessary. However this demands the use of a relatively powerful pump which pumps the condensation water out of the condensation water tank to the available rinsing device. However there is sometimes the desire to avoid this type of high outlay and to make do with a more simple arrangement in order to clean a component arranged within a process air circuit of a washer/dryer or tumble dryer, especially an evaporator of a condenser device, by means of the condensation water collected in a condensation water tank.
A device for cleaning the evaporator of a condenser device in a tumble dryer is also known (EP 0 468 573 A1). With this known device the evaporator of the condenser device consisting of a plurality of fins arranged in parallel with each other can be cleaned on its side opposite a condensation water tank by means of a cleaning device. This cleaning device consists of a brush or an arrangement of bristles able to be moved backwards and forwards to which condensation water additionally contained in the condensation water tank is fed. With this known device however the cleaning of the evaporator of the condenser device is relatively bad since the comb-shaped cleaning device is only in a position to clean the upper area of the evaporator of the condenser device, not the significantly larger area lying below it. This might possibly be able to be cleaned by the comb-type cleaning device being provided with bristles which extend over the entire depth of the evaporator. However, provided this were able to function at all, it would demand a relatively high energy outlay and thereby a relatively high constructional outlay because of the significant friction between the bristles of the comb-type cleaning device and the side walls of the fins of the evaporator. Such an outlay is however seen as undesirable.
A method and a household tumble dryer for cleaning a section of a process airflow guide are also known (DE 199 43 125 A1). In this device a fan is provided to generate the process airflow which can be brought into contact in a drying compartment with the laundry to be dried to enable it to take up moisture. Outside the drying phase in which the process airflow is created by means of the fan and is brought into contact in the drying compartment with the laundry to be dried, in a cleaning phase with the fan switched off a section of the process air guide is flooded at least partly for a specific period with a liquid. This liquid is removed again at the end of the cleaning phase from the flooded section of the process air guide. The relevant liquid especially involves condensation liquid from a condensation container in which condensation water is collected during the drying of the laundry which is obtained from drying wet laundry. To be able to undertake the said flooding of the said section of the process air guide, this is to be sealed by means of a sealing arrangement which is however currently viewed as undesirable because of the associated outlay. A more simple solution for cleaning a component arranged within a process air circuit of a washer/dryer or tumble dryer is therefore being sought.
A method for removing lint from a heat exchanger of a household appliance as well as a corresponding household appliance has already been proposed (official file reference 10 2006 061 211.6-internal file reference: 200602617), for which a rinsing liquid especially formed by a condensation created during the drying process in the household appliance is diverted as a function of the strength of a stream of air and, depending on the diversion, flows through different areas of the heat exchanger. In this case however an efficient cleaning of the heat exchanger can only be achieved with a sufficiently large volume and/or with sufficiently fast flowing rinsing liquid. How this is to be achieved however is left open in the relevant context.